Failure
by MasterFirebender84
Summary: Even with all her powers as the Avatar, Korra felt weak and useless. Her defeat at the hands of the corrupted Councilman Tarrlok was proof of her shameful failure. Now she sits in her lonely prison cell, scarred and injured, cold and alone. Korra contemplates on her failure as the Avatar she was supposed to be, shedding tears that no one will ever see.


Episode 8...it broke me emotionally. I just had to write this in order to get it out of my system. T_T Stay strong, Korra. We all believe in you.

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own "Avatar: The Last Airbender". The show and its characters belong to Mike and Bryan, the brillant geniuses behind one of the greatest cartoon shows in the history of cartoons. Their work is legendary, and I salute them for it. I also do not own "The Legend of Korra" or any of the characters associated with it. I am merely a fanboy with a passionate love for this series.

**Failure**

Every muscle in Korra's body screamed with agonizing outrage as Tarrlok controlled her body with his Bloodbending, making her walk towards the open prison cell door. She tried to fight against both his Bloodbending and her rope bonds, but her efforts were frustratingly futile. With a rough swipe of his hand, Tarrlok sent Korra flying into the metal cell. She painfully cried out as she slammed against the far wall, falling to the floor as Tarrlok slammed the cell door shut, locking it with a key.

"There," growled Tarrlok as he glared at Korra from the bars in the cell door. Narrowing his frigid cyan eyes at her as she remained lying on the floor, he seethingly added, "Now you'll never get in my way again."

"I'll find a way out of here, Tarrlok!" defiantly declared Korra, sitting up as she angrily scowled at the corrupt Councilman.

"How?" coldly challenged Tarrlok, his voice full of hateful malice. "This entire cell is made of metal, which you don't know how to bend. You also can't bend the earth underneath that metal; the metal extends down far enough below ground to prevent you from Earthbending. This metal is also highly resistant to intense flames, so you can forget about melting your way out of here. There's no water in here for you to use either." With a sly, triumphant smirk, Tarrlok smugly said, "Face it, Avatar Korra. You've met your match, and now you'll no longer be a bother to me or to Republic City."

"Someone will come looking for me!" retorted Korra, holding her chin up high in a gesture of defiance. "They'll bust me out of here, and when they do, I'm going to kick your butt all over Republic City!"

"No one will come looking for you," dismissed Tarrlok. "I'll simply tell the press that the damage done to City Hall and your disappearance were all because of the Equalists." Sharply narrowing his unforgiving eyes, he lowly said, "No one will ever miss you, Korra. No one will ever come looking for you, and no one will free you from this place. You're going to live out the rest of your pathetic, miserable little life in this cell. Take a good, hard look at my face, young lady, because this is the last face you'll ever see."

"Go jump off a cliff, Tarrlok," bitterly snapped Korra, letting her hatred of Tarrlok seep into her voice.

Tarrlok merely scoffed at her retort, firmly saying, "Goodbye, Avatar Korra." With that, he slammed the door panel closed, cutting out the light that had been leaking in through the bars and leaving Korra alone in total darkness.

Korra loosed a frustrated, outraged growl as she snorted fire out of her nose. The flames briefly illuminated the inside of the cell, revealing no discernible features before the flames dissipated. Darkness filled the empty void of the cell, leaving the Avatar to stew in her boiling anger and raging indignity.

Here she was, battered and wounded from her grueling fight with Tarrlok, all alone in this dank prison cell. She had no idea of where they were, but she knew that she was very far away from Republic City. Tarrlok would want to make absolutely sure that she would never interfere in his affairs ever again. He intended to let her rot in this prison cell like some kind of vermin; it wouldn't surprise her if Tarrlok saw her as nothing more than a pest that needed to be ruthlessly squashed.

She stood up on her feet, taking in a deep breath, tightly clenching her leg muscles. She heavily stomped her foot in an attempt to Earthbend, but the earth refused to heed her command. She tried again and again, stomping her feet as she loudly growled her irritation. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't Earthbend.

In one last attempt to free herself, Korra unleashed a barrage of flaming kicks at the door in the hopes of melting it. However, no matter how furiously she pounded away at the door with her powerful flames, nothing seemed to weaken it.

Dropping down to the floor again as she let out a defeated sigh, Korra rested her back against the wall, panting as she tried to catch her breath. Besides her breathing, it was utterly silent in the cell. It was as if her prison wasn't a part of this world, an eternal limbo in which she would remain until she died from starvation and thirst. She would spend the rest of her young life in this wretched place, wasting away to nothing as Tarrlok and Amon continued to tear Republic City apart with their war.

If she had just been a little bit stronger, she may have been able to overcome Tarrlok. If she had been the Avatar she was supposed to be, she wouldn't have let a sleazebag like Tarrlok overpower her. He had toyed with her body using his Bloodbending, utterly humiliating her as he easily crushed her. He had made a mockery of her, the all-powerful Avatar.

Sadly, Korra knew she wasn't that powerful of an Avatar. While her skills with the other elements could be considered prodigal, her Airbending – or lack thereof - was an absolute joke. No matter how tirelessly she would study, memorize, and perform her training forms, she had never been able to produce a single puff of air. All her life, her Airbending had remained dormant, refusing to unlock itself no matter how hard she strived to move past her Airbending block.

Not only that, but her spiritual side was inadequate as well. She had never been able to contact any of her past lives before, and that fact alone enraged her to no end. All she wanted was answers: why was she unable to Airbend? Why was Aang's spirit trying to contact her? How could she possibly hope to stop both Tarrlok and the Equalists? How could she possibly find her own path as the Avatar when the only people who could help her now were totally out of reach?

Gritting her teeth in rage, Korra felt salty tears begin to leak into her eyes. It wasn't fair; all she was trying to do was be the Avatar she was supposed to be, but no matter how much she tried, things always ended up getting worse for her. The situation in Republic City kept deteriorating, chaos and dissent spreading like rampant wildfires. Gathering up all of her frustration and burning anger into her core, she loosed a piercing scream from her mouth. All she could do now was outpour her emotions, letting her screams bounce off the walls of her cell and endlessly echo in her ears. Her screams died down as she drained her raging emotions of their potency.

Feeling the tears slide down her cheeks, stinging the scars on her face, Korra raggedly murmured, "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…" She didn't even know who she was apologizing to. Her friends? Tenzin and his family? The people of Republic City? Aang and the rest of her past lives?

No…she was apologizing to herself.

She had failed as a friend. She was unable to protect her friends, unable to save them from Tarrlok despite all the power she wielded. She had let a lowly Waterbender like Tarrlok get the better of her, disgracing her in the worst way possible. Now she was far away from her friends, unable to reach them and most likely never seeing them again. She could still remember seeing Mako being forced into the back of the police car, how he looked at her with those soft, golden eyes. Even now, she could see his face, making her tears spill forth even stronger.

She had failed as an Airbender. Despite countless weeks of training, she was just as useless of an Airbender as the day she was born. Nothing she did barely even did anything to her Airbending block, as if her efforts were utterly futile in the end. She had failed Tenzin as a student, and that fact alone caused her to painfully close her eyes.

Worst of all, she had failed an Avatar. The Equalists were continuing to rise up in Republic City, unchecked and unopposed as they began their revolutionary march. Tarrlok's corruption was spreading like a tainted poison, infecting both the Council and the Police with its ill will. She had failed to master Airbending, something she had mastered a thousand times over a thousand lifetimes, and she had failed to contact her past lives even once. Only her past lives could help her now, but she had no idea or clue as how to even contact them.

She was useless. She was incompetent. She was brash, irrational, impatient, and stubborn. She was hotheaded, aggressive, ignorant, and absolutely worthless. She hated her entire being at that moment, hated every disdainful and negative thing about her that had led to her downfall. Her grief and sadness only seemed to amplify how negatively she viewed herself, each undesirable aspect about herself coldly stabbing her heart like a knife. Her tears cascaded down her face, unable to control her grievous emotions.

She was alone once more, forgotten and rejected by the world she was supposed to protect. She would never see her friends, Tenzin, or Tenzin's family ever again, forever condemned to die alone in this horrid prison cell. "I'm so sorry…" Korra tearfully mumbled as she fell onto the floor, more tears spilling from her eyes as she wretchedly sobbed her broken heart out. "I can't do anything right…I'm a failure…I'm so sorry…"

No one heard as Avatar Korra nestled into the pit of her own despair, her echoing sobs lost to all ears but her own. It seemed as if her legend was going to come to an abrupt end, an end she had brought upon herself. However, her legend would be a sad tale of how one young woman's life was filled with nothing but disappointment and failure.

No one would remember her or her deeds.

No one would remember how one young woman disappeared from existence altogether.

No one would remember Avatar Korra.


End file.
